Gr. W. BULLAMORB 59 



In the record of another stock we read that "the flying workers were 

 frequently more heavily parasitised than were the bees of the same stock 

 which were unable to fly." 



In an interesting case which was under the writer's own observation in 

 April, 1921, the crawhng symptom was manifested but no mites were to be 

 found. The crawling disappeared during the summer, but reappeared in the 

 autumn when the symptom was accompanied by the presence of mites in the 

 tracheae. 



As an example of the recovery of a stock we have the following from a 

 letter received by Dr Rennie (1921): 



On January 9th I received your report that the bees from one of my stocks had Tarso- 

 nemus woodi. 



From this stock reported diseased on that date I had a swarm on the 23rd of May and 

 this swarm swarmed on the 28th of June. I have taken off 150 sections and have three 

 very strong stocks. 



Dr Rennie's explanation is that early diagnosis enables us to recognise 

 such recoveries and that formerly this was not possible. We only recognised 

 the presence of the disease after it was irretrievably estabhshed. This "gave 

 us an erroneous idea as to the gravity of the disease." 



Such an explanation is not altogether satisfactory. When Isle of Wight 

 disease reached an apiary the loss of colonies was usually 100 per cent, and 

 the margin of error in forming an estimate of its gravity must have been very 

 slight. 



In the Report of the Hants and Isle of Wight Beekeepers' Association for 

 1906 we read: 



Twenty-five years' acquaintance with bees, bee men and bee life has not revealed aiiy- 

 thing so deadly or mysterious as this so-called bee paralysis of the Island. 



Silver (1907), who toured the Island in 1907, gives his impressions in these 

 words : 



The sight of whole apiaries of 10 to 20 hives standing desolate and deserted in the middle 

 of May is a most distressing one, and standing as I did, under a horse-chestnut tree in full 

 blossom, in the grounds of the Rev. John Vicars, of Colbourne, situated in the centre of the 

 Island, not a bee was visible on a beautiful spring day. 



Complete apiaries died out in May and June just after swarming and when 

 the hives must have been tenanted with young bees. 



In support of the thesis that Tarsonemus woodi has been entirely responsible 

 for the losses known as Isle of Wight disease, Dr Rennie suggests that T. woodi 

 is at present a parasite of bees in this country only. He assumes that Isle of 

 Wight disease has never been clearly shown to exist in any other country and 

 that no such persistent losses have ever occurred before in this or any other 

 country, and discusses the possibihty that a new disease has arisen through 

 the migration of the mite from some other insect to the hive bee as host. 



The evidence that the mite is not to be found in bees of other countries 

 is confined to the negative results obtained by the examination of a few 



